13 March 2003 - How to make a living doing nothing ... the life of parasites

There are many forms of life and ways to survive in this world. One technique is that of the parasite. The flea, hair lice, stomach worms and numerous other creatures live of their hosts in ways that have no benefit for the host and cause anything from irritation to death.

Human society has its share of parasites and it is vital that they are recognised for the health of humanity and of the planet we call home. Removing a parasite can be a very difficult problem. It may have such a hold over the host, that removing it will risk killing the host. Invariably prevention is better than cure.

We as human beings need to understand these parasites, how they live and how to save ourselves from them. However, at the end of the day these human cannibalistic parasites are still human and there is always the possibility that by changing their way of life, they can become part of the solution rather than part of the problem.

What forms does human parasitical behaviour take? There are many, from those who live off handouts and do nothing to improve themselves to those who live off interest paid by third world countries or off money made from funding wars.

This brings us to the current political crisis the world is facing. The US egged on by Blair is on the brink of launching an endless series of wars. Wars mean death. But to some war means life. The weapons sellers but even more so the financers of war live well off the death of others. The war debts will be paid by the booty of war. Sponsoring robbery and murder is a sure route to a flourishing parasitical life. You can make a good living off it, especially if you are the world's policeman and there is no one to catch and stop you.

How can the rest of us who want live peacefully defend ourselves against this? Well, firstly, correct diagnosis is half the cure. If you give the wrong medicine you only make the problem worse and cause harmful side effects as well. Some treatments only treat the symptoms and do nothing about the causes.

In human society, we can identify several phenomena which are accurately described as parasitic. We can also find many people offering solutions that are based on wrong diagnoses. The most pernicious of tactics is however, where the parasite deceives the host into thinking that they are themselves the solution to the problem. In medicine this is what the aids virus does.

The world today is diseased. The nature of the disease is a parasite which infects the very institutions that should protect the people of the world. The law makers, the judges and enforcers.

The people of this planet are starting to realise their predicament. Moving from that to a cure to the disease will not be easy, but perhaps if we start to think of humanity as a living creature with a serious parasite infestation, we may be able to understand sooner what the cure is.

At the core of the parasitical activity killing humanity is the function of usury. By its very nature it ensures the life of the bankers at the cost of everyone else. The only risks banks have is when they suck so much blood from their victims that the victim dies - bankruptcy. Reform is vital to ensure that finance is made inherently symbiotic rather than parasitic. In other words to ensure that financiers don't profit at the direct expense of the financed. Each profit must be gained only in exchange for legally identifiable measurable benefit. Once contracts are constrained in this way, then commercial life can be subjected to principles of economic justice. If the contract comes into dispute, then rather than imposing the profit of one side at the loss of the other - as occurs with usury - the profit is lost in exchange for the corresponding benefit being returned.

There are many other parasitical activities, but unless we remove this core we will not survive except in bondage and bandage.